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1 page one OLD NEWS Lindbergh Takes Off February & March 2008 $ 3.75 On Transatlantic Flight By Rick Bromer He had about two thousand dollars In 1926 Charles Lindbergh was in savings, and he raised the rest of an airmail pilot who carried letters the money from businessmen in St. between St. Louis and Chicago for Louis who hoped that publicity from the United States Postal Service. their sponsorship of a successful One night towards the end of transatlantic crossing could turn St. September, the twenty-four-year-old Louis into an aviation hub. Lindbergh was alone in the cockpit In February of 1927, Lindbergh of his government airplane, ying went to San Diego, California, to look over Illinois, when he decided to into ordering an airplane from the start planning an attempt to y from Ryan Aeronautical Company. Donald the United States to France. If he Hall, the companys chief engineer, succeeded, he would win a twenty- seemed shocked when Lindbergh told ve-thousand-dollar prize that had him of his plan to y alone. been offered by Franco-American I thought youd need somebody to hotelier Raymond Orteig to the crew navigate and be the relief pilot, Hall of the rst airplane to complete a said. I thought it would be much too nonstop ight in either direction long for one pilot. between New York and Paris. Lindbergh replied, Id rather Several teams of aviators were have the extra gasoline than an extra already competing to win the Orteig man. prize. Ren Fonck, a French World Hall considered that idea for a War One ying ace, had tried to y moment and then nodded. Flying from New York to Paris on September alone would lower the planes weight 20, but his large and expensive and boost its range, Hall agreed. He biplane, overloaded with gasoline for began making sketches on the back of the long ight, had failed to take off an envelope. and had crashed and burned at the end By February 24, Hall had designed of the runway. Fonck had survived, a $10,580 aircraft that would carry but two members of his crew had four hundred gallons of gasoline, more been killed. than enough to complete the 3,600- Lindbergh thought that Fonck mile transatlantic ight. Lindberghs had failed because he had weighed backers sent the money to California, down his airplane with redundant and the Ryan Aeronautical Company equipment and extra crewmen in a rushed to construct the single-engine Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis. misguided attempt to make his ight monoplane as fast as possible. safer. Foncks plane had two sets of Lindbergh decided to call his new wings and three engines. It had carried airplane the Spirit of St. Louis. He three copilots, a bed, long-wave and insisted that no nonessential weight shortwave radios, and special bags for be addedno gasoline tank gauges, otation in case of a landing at sea. no radio, no parachute. Lindbergh believed that a simpler While the Spirit of St. Louis was plane with one set of wings, one under construction, two ofcers of engine, and one pilot would have the United States Navy, Commander a better chance of taking off with Noel Davis and Lieutenant Stanton enough gasoline to cross an ocean. Wooster, announced their intention In his 1953 memoir, The Spirit of St. to y from New York to Paris. Their Louis, Lindbergh wrote: A plane aircraft, The American Legion, was thats got to break the worlds record equipped with three Wright J-5 for nonstop ying should be stripped Whirlwind engines that were rated at of every excess ounce of weight. 220 horsepower each and would burn Lindbergh estimated that he could a lot of gasoline on a transatlantic have the right sort of airplane built ight. Both Davis and Wooster were for less than fteen thousand dollars. killed on April 26, when their aircraft The Spirit of St. Louis on a test flight in California.

2 page two crashed near New York while trying Aireld, and the soft ground slowed drift shut for only a few seconds at a Because his route was taking him to take off with a huge load of fuel on the wheels of the Spirit of St. Louis, time. For a while he thought that he through sub-arctic latitudes, the May their nal test ight. which failed to become airborne as could rest his eyes in this way without night was mercifully short. Dawn Two days later, the Spirit of St. quickly as Lindbergh had expected. actually falling asleep, but then he appeared at 3:00 a.m. local time over Louis was completed in California, Although he could not see directly checked his clock and discovered that the mid-Atlantic, but on Lindberghs and Lindbergh made his rst test ahead, he knew that he would have his eyes had actually been shut for clock, set to New York time, the light ight in his new airplane. Fuel tanks to clear a telephone wire at the end of several minutes, not seconds. returned at precisely 1:00 a.m. took up so much interior space in the the runway. Lindbergh knew that if he fell Lindbergh hoped that dawn would cockpit that they blocked Lindberghs When Lindbergh nally managed deeply asleep, he would fail to reach make him wakeful, but the increasing forward vision. The only way that he to coax his ship into the air, he was France. His plane was not stable, light seemed to have the opposite could see directly ahead while ying dangerously close to the end of and it would not y straight without effect. He had been ying for over was by sticking his head out one of the runway. He looked out his side constant correction. In addition to eighteen hours, and he had hardly the side windows, or by peeking window and saw the telephone wire the risk of crashing into the sea, he slept for two days. He later wrote: through a periscope installed through twenty feet beneath his landing gear. faced the certainty of running out of Ive lost command of my the cabin roof. During takeoff and He promptly turned hard to the right gasoline if he strayed off course or eyelids. When they start to close, I landing, Lindbergh had to judge to avoid some trees, and then gained wasted fuel ying in circles. cant restrain them. They shut, and his altitude by looking out the side sufcient altitude to avoid all other Just when he felt that he could not I shake myself, and lift them with windows, which he found easy to obstructions. stay awake another minute, he looked my ngers. My back is stiff; my do. Very pleased with the Spirits He next headed northeast at an out the window and saw something shoulders ache; my face burns; my performance, Lindbergh boasted altitude of ve hundred feet. The that woke him with a start. The ocean eyes smart. All I want in life is to that it was one of the most efcient air was calm, which pleased him, had changed color, turning dazzling throw myself down at, stretch out airplanes ever built. because he was afraid that turbulence white. He was ying over an ice eld. and sleep. While Lindbergh was still testing might break the wings off a plane He later wrote: Any change, I realize, As the sun rose, Lindbergh ran his plane in San Diego, yet another loaded with so much fuel. stimulates the senses. Changing into some storms, which helped to team of iers tried to win the Orteig Lindbergh felt alert until the third altitude, changing thought, even the keep him awake for an hour or two. prize. On May 8, French pilots Charles hour of the ight, when he became changing contours of the ice cakes Then he ew into blinding white fog. Nungesser and Franois Coli took off drowsy after passing over Boston help me to stay awake. . . . Similarity Cut off from any visual reference, he from Paris and headed for New York and beginning a tedious passage over is my enemy, change, my friend. began to suffer the illusion that his in an airplane called LOiseau Blanc the featureless waters of the Gulf of When he reached Newfoundland aircraft was not moving. He stared (the White Bird). The plane and its Maine. To clear his mind he dropped during the tenth hour of his ight, at his instrument panel, watching the pilots vanished during the ight. down to within ten feet of the water Lindbergh recovered his alertness. He gauge needles move as he adjusted On May 10, Lindbergh ew the and watched the waves until he spied felt ne during the next two hours, the airplanes controls. He later Spirit of St. Louis from San Diego the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, as he ew over Newfoundlands wrote: How fantastic it is to think to St. Louis. The next day he ew to looming ahead in the eyepiece of his unspoiled mountains and forests. that if I just sit here long enough, New York. He planned to take off for periscope. At twilight he passed above the jiggling these needles, France will Paris as soon as weather conditions Lindbergh had no trouble staying port of St. Johns and resumed ying lie belowlike a childs imaginary were favorable, but bad weather awake when he was ying over over the Atlantic Ocean. He did not travels in a parlor chair. Over and delayed him for more than a week. the forested hills of Nova Scotia, expect to see land again until he over again I fall asleep with my eyes Finally, on the evening of May where he studied the landscape with reached the coast of Ireland. open, unable to prevent it. 19, Lindbergh learned that an fascination and daydreamed about As stars appeared through the The difference between being unexpected change in the weather what it would be like to hunt and sh overhead window of his cockpit, awake and dreaming became blurred would create perfect ying conditions there. But after passing over Cape Lindbergh was delighted to notice for Lindbergh. He was sometimes over the Atlantic the next day. After Breton and beginning the ight over white icebergs oating on the awakened by noticing movements of making some last-minute mechanical the Atlantic Ocean to his next landfall, darkening sea beneath him. Watching the gauge needles. He would correct preparations to his airplane, he went Newfoundland, he again became the fantastically shaped icebergs the course of the airplane, and then to a hotel to rest but found himself sleepy. His clock, set to New York helped to keep him awake. drift back to sleep while still staring too excited to get much sleep. time, informed him that it was only Although the air was getting quite wide-eyed at the gauges. Lindbergh estimated that it 4:00 p.m., but he felt very tiredand cold, Lindbergh left the windows During the twenty-second hour should take thirty-ve and a half bored. There was nothing to see but open in hopes that the blast of air on of the ight, at about 5:00 a.m. New hours to cross the Atlantic. Hoping ocean outside the windows, and his his face would keep him awake. York time, Lindbergh felt that the to maximize the amount of daylight only task was to watch his compass During the dark hours of the fuselage behind him had lled with during his ight, he rose before dawn needle and keep it on the right mark. night, Lindbergh once again had to spirits. He could see these phantoms on the morning of May 20, after less He later described his sensations at ght fatigue. He tried to stay alert without turning around, and he could than two hours of sleep. By sunrise that time: My eyes feel hard and by bouncing on his seat and by hear them speaking to him with he had pumped four hundred gallons dry as stones. The lids pull down stamping his feet until they ached, human voices. They drifted in and out of fuel into his airplane at Roosevelt with pounds of weight against their but after three hours of darkness, he of his airplane, sometimes discussing Aireld near New York. muscles. Keeping them open is like felt so drowsy that he began using problems of navigation among At 7:54 a.m., Lindbergh began his holding arms outstretched without his thumbs to prop his eyelids open. themselves and sometimes giving takeoff run for his ight to Paris. Rain support. He was not carrying any coffee Lindbergh advice about his ight, had muddied the runway at Roosevelt Lindbergh tried letting his eyes or other stimulants. He distrusted as well as messages of importance caffeine, thinking that its temporary unattainable in ordinary life. effects were enervating, and that Lindbergh decided that the spirits drinking coffee would ultimately were friendly emanations from the leave him more tired than drinking experience of ages, inhabitants of plain water. a universe closed to mortal men. The view from the cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh could see the stars through an overhead window, but to see forward he needed to Lindbergh leans out one of the side windows of his plane. He kept the either use a periscope or else stick his head out one of the side windows. windows open during his entire transaltantic flight.

3 page three He felt that he was on the border suddenly felt wide-awake. The sun By the time he reached Paris, it was his admirers to set him down on the between life and death, and that he and sea looked incredibly beautiful, so dark that he needed a ashlight to earth, but there wasnt room in the might soon join the spirits forever. He and he felt condent that he would read his instrument panel. Lindbergh crush of people, and everyone wanted asked himself: Am I now more man not fall asleep again. felt not the slightest desire to rest, and to carry him. or spirit? Will I y my airplane on On the twenty-seventh hour of his he wished that he could stay airborne My feet still havent touched the to Europe and live in esh as I have ight, Lindbergh saw shing boats. longer. Because he was ahead of ground, he thought. before, feeling hunger, pain, and cold, He glided down to within fty feet schedule, he estimated that he still The ight had taken thirty-three or am I about to join these ghostly of one boat, closed his airplanes had plenty of fuel. He described and a half hours, and Lindbergh had forms, become a consciousness throttle, and shouted, Which way is his feelings as follows: I want to been awake for most of the last fty- in space, all-seeing, all-knowing, Ireland? prolong this culminating experience eight hours. unhampered by materialistic fetters Lindbergh expected to see men of my ight. I almost wish Paris were After an hour, Lindbergh was of the world? crowding the decks of the boats to a few more hours away. Its a shame nally released from the mob and Suddenly the Spirit of St. Louis point and wave at him, but only one to land with the night so clear and so was driven to the American embassy burst from its white shroud of fog pale face appeared at the porthole of much fuel in my tanks. in Paris. There he cheerfully gave a into blinding sunlight, and the spirits one boat. The lack of response from Lindbergh circled the Eiffel Tower, press conference before nally going departed. Looking at spray-lashed the boats seemed inexplicably strange and then headed for Le Bourget to bed at 4:15 in the morning, wearing blue waves, Lindbergh was lled and dreamlike. Lindbergh decided aireld, which had been oodlit for the ambassadors pajamas, after sixty- with hope and joy. He felt that he had that the man peering out the porthole his benet. He landed, taxied to a three hours without rest. been awakened from a near-death probably did not speak English. He halt, and suddenly found his airplane SOURCES: experience. left the boats and resumed ying surrounded by a gigantic, hysterically Lindbergh, Charles A. The Spirit of St. Im ten hours out from east. cheering crowd. Men lifted Lindbergh Louis. New York: Charles Scribners Newfoundland, he thought. In less Sixteen hours from Newfoundland, from the cockpit and carried him on Sons, 1953. than eight hours more, if the wind Lindbergh saw the coast of Ireland. their shoulders as the crowd chanted Lindbergh, Charles A. We. New York: holds and Im not too far off course, I He was two hours ahead of schedule. Vive! Lindbergh tried to persuade G. P. Putnams Sons, 1927. should strike the Irish coast. While ying over Ireland and then But soon Lindbergh resumed England, Lindbergh did not feel even drifting off to sleep at the controls. slightly sleepy. His interest in the Usually he managed to wake up every landscape beneath his wings kept him few minutes to keep the airplane alert. on course, but during the twenty- The sun was setting when the fourth hour of the ight, when the Spirit of St. Louis crossed the English sun was high overhead in a blue sky, Channel and ew over the port of Lindbergh suddenly realized with Cherbourg, France. Despite the panic that he had lost consciousness gathering darkness, Lindbergh felt and could not regain it. His eyes were wide-awake, full of excitement. open but everything was getting dark. He thrust his head out the window into the slipstream of air. The wing, MOVING? the sky, and the ocean were all turning black. He told himself: Breathe The U. S. Postal Service will not Predawn preparations for Lindberghs flight. deeply. Force the eyes to see. . . . God forward periodicals, so you will give me strength. not get Old News after moving Then his terror seemed to wake unless you notify us of your new address. Send a note by mail or e- him up. Color began returning to the mail, or call us by telephone. world, and Lindbergh thought, No, Im not going over the precipice. OLD NEWS The ocean is green again. The skys 3 West Brandt Blvd. turning blue. Clouds are whitening. Landisville, PA 17538-1105 . . . Consciousness is coming back. 717-898-9207 After that experience, Lindbergh Lindberghs route to France. SUBSCRIBE TO OLD NEWS. A one-year subscription to Old News (six issues) costs $17. A two-year subscription (twelve issues) costs $33. SEND A NEW SUBSCRIPTION TO ME: Name.............. 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4 Stage Actor Charlie Chaplin page four Tries Making Movies By Dorothy Patricia Brewster more than he had ever earned before. uttering screens of windblown white had a minor role and he quarreled Charlie Chaplin was a young Having grown up in poverty in linen diffused the sun, enhancing the with director Henry Lehrman. English comic actor who toured the London, Chaplin could hardly believe way human faces looked on lm. On the day after Chaplin nished United States with a British music-hall his good fortune; but he knew nothing Beautiful women, including starlet the lm with Lehrman, Sennett was revue from 1910 to 1913. His most about lmmaking, and he secretly Mabel Normand and the extras known standing peering at the set for a new popular role was that of a drunken doubted his ability to act in movies. as the Sennett Bathing Beauties, lm. There was no script yet for the old mana part that required him to Films were silent in 1913, and he was wandered among the sets. The male story. In his autobiography, Chaplin wear heavy makeup to disguise the accustomed to using dialog to achieve actors were a mixture of odd-looking recalled that Sennett said, We need fact that he was in his early twenties. comic effects. comedians and rugged stuntmen like some gags here. Turning to Chaplin, In September of 1913, Chaplin Chaplin was so fearful that he the Keystone Cops, many of whom he said, Put on a comedy make-up. signed a one-year contract with might fail as a lm actor that on the were ex-prizeghters with battered Anything will do. a lm company in Los Angeles day that he was supposed to report for faces. On the way to the wardrobe room, called the Keystone Pictures Studio, work at the Keystone Pictures Studio, It was a strange and unique Chaplin wondered what to wear. whose founder, Mack Sennett, had he was afraid to enter the grounds. atmosphere of beauty and beast, Based on his experience in the theater, been favorably impressed by one of After watching costumed Keystone Chaplin wrote. he decided to make everything a Chaplins vaudeville performances. Cops and other employees come He was fascinated to nd that contradiction. At the wardrobe room The contract promised Chaplin one pouring out of the gate to buy hot movies were made piecemeal. In one he picked out a small hat, large shoes, hundred fty dollars a weekfar dogs and sandwiches at a store across set, Chaplin wrote, Mabel Normand baggy pants, and a tight coat. Sennett the street, Chaplin returned to his was banging on a door shouting: Let had liked Chaplins vaudeville role as hotel. He later wrote: me in! Then the camera stopped and an old drunkard, so Chaplin looked that was it. for props that would make him The problem of entering No one gave Chaplin any work look older. He added a cane and an the studio and facing all those to do for ten days, which made him abbreviated mustache that he gured people became an insuperable nervous. His nervousness increased was small enough to allow the camera one. For two days I arrived when Sennett informed him that he to see his facial expressions. outside the studio but had not would have to improvise his own Once he was dressed in these the courage to go in. The third parts. Sennett said, We have no clothes and makeup, a character day Mr. Sennett telephoned and scenariowe get an idea, then follow suddenly came alive for him. The wanted to know why I had not the natural sequence of events until character was a penniless tramp who shown up. I made some sort it leads up to a chase, which is the tries to act like a wealthy gentleman. of excuse. Come down right essence of our comedy. Chaplin strutted out onto the lm set, away, well be waiting for you, Chaplin did not like the Keystone swinging his cane, with ideas racing he said. brand of humor, which relied on through his mind. For ten minutes, he actors ghting with pies or chasing described his character to Sennett: Chaplin then worked up the each other. He preferred humor based courage to enter the Keystone on personalitybut that was easier to You know, this fellow is premises, where Sennett seemed glad achieve with dialog on stage than with many-sided, a gentleman, a to see him. Chaplin was immediately manic action on the silent screen. poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, enthralled by the ethereal quality Chaplins rst attempt to act in a always hopeful of romance Charlie Chaplin in 1920. of light on the movie sets, where movie left him feeling frustrated. He and adventure. 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5 page five you believe he is a scientist, a the clothes had imbued me with the was in tears. He was pleased when comedy, and many of Chaplins musician, a duke, a polo player. character, I then and there decided I she told him, I know its supposed movies are still popular throughout However, he is not above would keep to this costume, whatever to be funny, but you just make me the world. picking up cigarette butts or happened. With the clothes on I weep. SOURCES: robbing a baby of its candy. felt he was a reality, a living person. During the rest of his fty-year Chaplin, Charles. My Autobiography. And, of course, if the occasion In fact he ignited all sorts of crazy career in cinema, Chaplin made New York: Simon and Schuster, warrants it, he will kick a lady ideas that I would never have dreamt many lms centered on his Tramp 1964. in the rearbut only in extreme of, until I was dressed and made up as character. The character became Milton, Joyce. Tramp. The Life of anger! the Tramp. an internationally beloved and Charlie Chaplin. New York: Harper Chaplins Tramp quickly became universally recognized icon of Collins Publishers, 1996. Sennett laughed, and then he said, so popular that department stores All right, get on the set and see what began selling toys and statuettes of the you can do there. character. In New York the Ziegfeld The plot of the movie called Follies girls donned mustaches, derby for Chaplin to accidentally meet a hats, big shoes, and baggy pants for a glamorous lady played by Mabel Chaplin number. Normand. With little instruction as As a result of his rising popularity, to what to do, Chaplin entered the Chaplin was able to gain creative set, an elegant hotel lobby, where control of his lms, at rst by his character, the Tramp, felt like an improvising his own scenes and imposter among the wealthy guests. later by directing whole movies for He tripped over a ladys toe and Keystone. He deliberately slowed the apologetically tipped his hat to her. pace of his comic movies, allowing He next tripped over a cuspidor and his character to create surprising tipped his hat to it. He then ran into moments of irony and pathos that the Mabel Normand character, got did not quite t the simple Keystone tied up in her dogs leash, and fell formula of slapstick humor. During down. the lming of The New Janitor, when The scene ran seven times longer the Tramp was threatened with being than Sennett had planned, but the red, Chaplin pleaded desperately, in extras who were watching were pantomime, that he had a family and roaring with laughter from start to many mouths to feed. As the scene nish, so Sennett decided to keep the ended, he looked up and noticed that whole routine. an actress who had been watching Chaplin played the Tramp in subsequent movies. He wrote: As The Keystone Cops. Mack Sennett. Charlie Chaplin in his Tramp costume. The Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties. Mabel Normand. Charlie Chaplin wears a tuxedo in A Night in the Show, a movie made in 1915.

6 Robert Bruce Claims page six Crown of Scotland By Matthew Surridge offshore, he sent scouts to the horsemen got in each others way. his tactics, based on quick attacks by On March 25, 1306, thirty-two- mainland to determine if the area was The resulting confusion meant that small groups of men, against these year-old Robert Bruce, Earl of occupied by the English. When Bruce their charge was disordered when it well-garrisoned fortications. Carrick, was crowned as the successor saw what he believed to be a signal struck the Scottish spears. The Scots Late in 1312, Bruce once again to King John of Scotland. Bruces re lit by his scouts, he led his men held, and a hundred Englishmen ordered his men to attack the fortied claim to the throne was supported by to the mainland, only to nd that the were unhorsed. The survivors of the city of Perth, where he had been so a majority of the Scottish nobility but scouts had not lit the re. The scouts rst wave, unable to retreat due to bitterly defeated in the Battle of posed a direct challenge to English warned him that a strong English force the pits and the terrain, then blocked Methven. The Scots besieged the King Edward I, whose army had was garrisoned at nearby Turnberry the oncoming second wave of city but could not breach the walls. invaded Scotland in 1296, deposing Castle, and that the area was teeming cavalrymen. Bruce commanded his Although they kept food from King John and exiling him to France. with English soldiers. infantry to advance in a line, forcing reaching the inhabitants, the supplies In June, Bruce marched with about Rather than directly assaulting the confused English to give ground already in the town were so abundant four thousand supporters in an attempt the castle, Bruce led his men in a and then to break completely. They that, after six weeks, it became clear to liberate the English-held fortied series of successful ambushes against ed to the nearby castle of Bothwell. that the city would not capitulate out town of Perth. Bruce decided to camp isolated groups of English troops Over the next several years, Bruce of hunger. Bruce therefore developed outside the town at a place called before retreating. He moved to the gained control over much of the a plan to take the city by stealth. Methven, expecting to engage in a nearby hills, where he was joined Scottish countryside. The English He sounded the depth of the citys traditional battle of mounted knights by old friends and supporters. He continued to occupy the cities and moat during the night, until he found the next day. At dusk, however, continued to launch guerilla-style castles, however, and in 1310 reports a shallow spot where he could cross the English launched a surprise attacks against small, isolated parties came that Edward II (the son of on foot with water up to his shoulders. attack, hitting Bruce while his men of English troops. He moved his camp Edward I, who had died of illness The next day, Bruce ordered his were setting up camp. Bruce barely frequently to elude the remaining in 1307), was leading a large army men to retreat to a nearby wood that escaped from the battleeld. He ed English forces in the area. northward, intending to reestablish concealed them from the citys view. to Rathlin Island, off the north coast As word of Bruces exploits spread, English control throughout Scotland. There he had several rope ladders of Ireland, where he remained for men discontented with English rule That autumn, the English army made. several months. While living there as found their way to Bruces camp crossed the border and marched into After eight days, when he believed a fugitive, he learned that his younger to join him. With growing support, Scotland. Bruce quickly realized the town would be less vigilant, Bruce brother Niall had been captured and Bruce decided to come down from that he could not defeat the much led his men by night back to Perth, executed by the English, while his the hills to the lowlands, thus gaining larger English army in open battle. and across the moat at the shallow sister, his wife, and his twelve-year- new recruits. His army soon doubled He ordered his men to attack them spot. Hooking the rope ladder he old daughter had been taken prisoner. in strength, to a total of six hundred in a series of quick raids, and hoped carried onto his spear, he threw the In February of 1307, Bruce came men. Expecting an English assault that the English would eventually spear up onto the battlements, where out of hiding and traveled south by when news of his presence spread, leave the eld due to the high cost of it caught and held him as he climbed sea with a force of about sixty men to Bruce chose to base his men on feeding roughly ten thousand soldiers. up. Bruce ordered his men to do the Carrick, his ancestral homeland, on Loudoun Hill, roughly twenty miles The crop that year had been poor, so same with the other ladders that they the west coast of Scotland. Anchoring east of the Ayrshire coast. There was foraging for food was not an option carried. He then led his men up the a single path to the camp, and Bruce for Edwards troops. ladders and had them scatter through had trenches dug on either side to On October 28, Edward retreated the city, causing great confusion narrow it and make it impossible for to the town of Berwick, on the border while opening the gates to the rest of the enemy to ank him. between England and Scotland. From his forces. By sunrise, the city and On May 10, Bruces scouts saw there, he directed a naval blockade of castle were his. three thousand English cavalry the eastern coast of Scotland. Bruce With Perth under his control, approaching the hill. Bruce arranged knew that this blockade would keep Bruce was able to move successfully his six hundred men, all armed with arms and food shipped from northern against a number of lesser English long spears, in a line across the path Europe from reaching him and his fortications in central Scotland. With to the hill. people, causing great distress and no supplies or relief coming to them As Bruce had expected, the cavalry making it difcult to continue to from Perth, the English garrisons attempted to charge when they saw ght. were starved into submission. the line of men. They approached in In December, Bruce decided In the summer of 1313, Bruce two waves. As the rst wave arrived, to spread false stories that he was learned that his brother Edward, the ditches Bruce had dug forced planning an attack on the Isle of who was leading a siege of Stirling them to bunch up into the one narrow Man, between England and Ireland. Castle, had signed a treaty with path as they approached the Scottish English spies heard these rumors in Philip Mowbray, the castles English position; the number of men and the middle of the month and reported commander, by which Edward would Robert Bruce. horses in the charge meant that the them to Edward, who ordered his lift his siege of the castle in exchange ships to sail to the Isle of Man to for a promise that Mowbray would fend off the rumored attack. With the turn the castle over to the Scots in one English navy on the western coast, yearunless the English army came the blockade became unenforceable. to relieve them in the meantime. Merchant ships from Europe soon Bruce was angered to learn that his returned to Scotland, bringing food impetuous brother had agreed to and arms for Bruces army. such a long period of time for the Unable to blockade the country relief of Stirling. He knew that the or come to grips with Bruces army, English could not refuse such a direct the English retreated south in the late challenge, that they would send a summer of 1311, leaving garrisons large army to the castle, and that he in several strongly built castles. The would have to confront and defeat Scots had no siege engineselaborate that army before it reached Stirling, devices, such as heavy catapults or or else the English would continue to wheeled towerswith which to break have a foothold in Scotland. Because down the castle walls and take the his brother had negotiated the pact, citadels by force. Bruce knew that as Bruce felt that his familys honor long as the English held the castles, was at stake, prohibiting him from they had a foothold in Scotland from attacking Stirling himself. Map shows the locations of some notable events in the life of Robert which to launch further invasions. In the summer of 1314, King Bruce, who was crowned Robert I, King of Scots. He had to come up with a way to use Edward II led a twenty-ve-

7 page seven thousand-strong English army into time, sending them left to attack the Bruce then called in the last of his had replaced his recently deposed Scotland, heading towards Stirling archers. reserves, the small folk. At their father) recognizing Scotland as an Castle. Bruce commanded only seven Although the Scottish cavalry was charge, the English thought a second independent kingdom, and Robert thousand trained men, but he also badly outnumbered by the English Scottish army was approaching, and Bruce as its king. had an irregular force of perhaps cavalry, the English archers had they broke ranks completely. The two thousand untrained farmers and advanced beyond the protection of battle became a rout. servants who were loyal to the ideal their own knights. Unable to defend In the aftermath of the battle, of an independent Scottish kingdom. themselves against the armored Stirling Castle was handed over to They were referred to as the small Scottish horsemen, the English the Scots, as promised. Bruce had SOURCES: folk. archers ran for the protection of their nally established military control Mackenzie, Agnes Mure. Robert Bruce positioned his men along the own cavalry, still milling about in over all of Scotland, and established Bruce King of Scots. London: road to Stirling Castle near a small disorder by Bannock Burn. the country as an independent Alexander Maclehose & Co., 1934. stream (called a burn in Scotland), The arrival of the eeing archers nation. As King Robert I, he ruled Scott, Ronald McNair. Robert the the Bannock Burn. He ordered that caused more fear and confusion over his country for fteen years. Bruce. New York: Peter Bedrick knee-deep pits be dug on both sides among the English by the stream. England refused to acknowledge Books, 1982. of the road. The pits were one-foot Sensing that the English were on Scottish sovereignty until 1328, just wide and covered by brush and grass. the edge of panic, Bruce called his one year before Bruces death. In INTERNET Bruce knew that his infantry, aware infantry reserves into the front lines. May of that year, a peace treaty was The Brus by John Barbour. http:// of the location of the pits, would be The infantry reinforced the Scottish signed at Northampton in the name www.arts.gla.ac.uk/SESLl/STELLA/ able to avoid them, but he hoped that left and added to the weight of the line of the adolescent Edward III (who STARN/poetry/BRUS/contents.htm the English cavalry horses would be of spears pressing forward. Under the hampered by them. assault of the Scottish reinforcements, On June 23, one day before the the English army began to give way. agreed deadline, the English army King Edward himself was forced to approached the Bannock Burn. Bruce ee. The sight of the royal banner was on horseback, inspecting his leaving the eld emboldened the armys formation, when an English Scottish, who cried: Lay on! Lay on! knight in the vanguard of the army They fail! appeared through the trees. Seeing Bruce, the knight charged to the attack. Bruce turned towards him and waited for the knight to reach him. At the last moment, Bruce dodged the knights attack, and struck him down with his battle-ax. The Scots cheered and then charged the rest of the English vanguard, who were trying to assume an attack formation but could not succeed because their horses kept slipping into the hidden Stirling Castle. pits that Bruce had had dug on both sides of the road. Bruces men drove them back. When another English cavalry unit advanced across a nearby eld, Bruce dispatched a unit of Scottish spearmen who positioned themselves in a circular formation called a schiltron. This formation presented the English cavalry with an unbroken wall of spears. The English tried to breach the wall with a series of quick charges, which failed; then the The hilltop location of Stirling Castle made it difficult for attackers to Scottish infantry counterattacked and The battle of Bannock Burn. storm its walls. scattered them. With night falling, the battle ended for the day. The next morning, reports reached Bruce soon after dawn that the main English force was crossing the Bannock Burn, with cavalry in the lead. He decided to let them make the crossing, and then he attacked when they were trying to organize their formations on the near side of the stream, where the river behind them limited their maneuverability. Bruces attack began at a deliberate pace. Holding his cavalry, some infantry, and his irregular small folk in reserve, he sent most of his spearmen advancing slowly towards the English in tight schiltron formation. The English at rst responded with a cavalry charge, which broke against the long spears and shields of the Scottish spearmen. The English cavalry began to retreat, but the tide of battle suddenly turned when arrows began to rain down on the Scottish spearmen, forcing them to halt and take cover under upraised shields. Bruce realized that the English had sent a division of archers to his left ank. He ordered his cavalry into action for the rst Bruce leading his troops into the battle of Bannock Burn.

8 Engineers Detonate page eight Huge Blast In New York By Paul Chrastina found their ships suddenly going of this three-acre bedrock shelf lay Newton hired private contractors In January of 1867, Lieutenant- out of control, spinning sideways anywhere from just above the waters to continue demolishing smaller rocks Colonel John Newton of the U.S. Army or drifting backwards in the fast- surface to a depth of fteen feet. in the channel, while he developed a Corps of Engineers was authorized changing currents. Newton learned that previous plan to deal with the larger reefs. by Congress to deepen busy shipping Each year nearly a thousand efforts to clear obstructions from He began at Halletts Point in lanes at Hell Gate, a half-mile vessels were damaged or lost in the channel by detonating kegs of August of 1869. Newton hired eighty stretch of the East River connecting collisions with rocks or other ships gunpowder near dangerous rock skilled English and Welsh miners New York Harbor and Long Island in the crowded Hell Gate channel. outcroppings had only achieved who were expert in the dangerous Sound. Hell Gate was extremely Fatalities were common, and nancial limited success. This method had procedures of submarine excavation, dangerous for ships because opposing losses from accidents totaled at least removed the highest points from having performed comparable work tides converged there in a welter of two million dollars annually. isolated rocks but had proven in tin mines beneath the Atlantic unpredictable rips, whirlpools, and One of the worst hazards at Hell inadequate on more extensive seabed off the coast of Cornwall. currents that funneled through rocks Gate was a reef off the Long Island bedrock reefs such as Halletts Point They began by building a 310-foot and submerged reefs. Captains trying shore at Halletts Point. Depending and Middle Reefthe sites of some long, U-shaped cofferdam along the to pass through these channels often on the ebb and ow of tides, portions of the worst accidents in the channel. Halletts Point waterfront that left part of the solid-rock riverbed dry. There, the workers laboriously excavated a thirty-foot-deep vertical mineshaft. After they completed digging the shaft in July of 1870, they began excavating ten tunnels that fanned out into the bedrock beneath the shallow, turbulent channel. Newton had estimated that it would take two or three years to complete the tunneling at Halletts Point. As work on the tunnels progressed, however, work crews encountered much harder layers of bedrock than he had expected to nd beneath the channel. To remove this rock, Newton had to use large charges of nitroglycerin, a recently invented chemical explosive so powerful that it blew chunks of rock out of the excavation high into the air above Long Island. According to the New York Times, Shipping in the East River, looking from Brooklyn towards Manhattan. residents of the Astoria neighborhood complained: Great carelessness is manifested in the blasting operations, and the people living or doing business in the vicinity of the Point are kept in constant dread for their lives, owing to the pieces of rock that fall so thick and fast about their places. These pieces weigh from ve to seventy-ve pounds, and are hurled from [the excavation] seventy-ve to ve hundred A maze of rocks and reefs menaced shipping at Hell Gate in the East River. Lt.-Col. John Newton.

9 page nine feet distant. The explosions, too, detonating thirty thousand pounds channel began ooding the tunnel followed with the little girl, two- are sometimes so heavy that the of explosives beneath the channel. complex, where the sealed and year-old Mary Newton. houses are shaken. Rumors characterized as wild primed canisters of explosives were At 2:50, Newton held his daughter prophecies and wilder guesses were connected by heavy-gauge wires to up to the control panel and let her Complaints about blast debris spread by tabloid newspapers. It was a large galvanic battery, located in a press the key that closed the electrical raining down on the homes and only with the greatest difculty, the shed several hundred yards from the circuit leading to the explosive businesses of Astoria convinced a Times noted, that police succeeded in excavation. charges. Long Island judge to prohibit further persuading some alarmed residents At two oclock in the afternoon According to the Times reporter: tunneling until stronger safety not to evacuate their homes. on September 24, Newton joined a measures were put in place. Newton Newton responded to the local group of invited guests and reporters Probably all held their breath. installed heavy blast curtains made anxiety in a letter published in the who were on hand at the ring Certainly the writer did, and in of timber and steel chains over the Times on September 21. He reassured point overlooking Halletts Point. It about two seconds . . . he felt a entrances to the tunnels, and the the residents of Astoria that their lives was a cool, rainy day, but hundreds sensation as if he was going to injunction was lifted. and property were in no danger. To of sightseers had assembled on the become giddy and fall. This was On April 20, 1871, the Times assert his condence in the absolute shores of Hell Gate. Fleets of guard actually the tremor of the earth reported that three shifts of workmen safety of the blast, he announced boats cordoned off the entrances to from the explosion, but it was were laboring around the clock at that he intended to bring his wife the channel. so unexpected that it seemed the site and that it is rather vaguely and young daughter to witness the A reporter from the Times wrote as if it was a nervous action calculated that the work will be historic event. He also explained that that Newton, on arriving, led his upon the body . . . there was nished in July, 1872. In fact, it the tunnels would be ooded prior wife up the little pier, and the nurse also . . . a slight contraction of wasnt until the late summer of 1876 to the blast in order to constrain its that Newton announced that the destructive power to the reef, rather tunneling was nearly nished, and than dissipating its energy beyond the demolition of the three-acre reef the excavation. There will be no would take place in early autumn. commotion of the air, he wrote, but On September 11 workmen began he recommended that people living placing the rst of seven thousand closest to the waterfront would do individually sealed waterproof well to have windows and doors open, cartridges of nitroglycerin and other, and to look out for their ceilings. The less costly, explosives into holes safest thing to do, Newton advised, drilled in the walls, columns, and would be to stand outside until the ceilings of the Halletts Point tunnel explosion is over. complex. The date of the demolition Just after noon on September was set for September 24. Some 23, a siphon was dropped over area residents began to worry about the edge of the cofferdam into the the potentially disastrous results of pit. Water drawn from Hell Gate A cofferdam kept the East River out of the vertical mineshaft on the Long Island shore. One of the Halletts Point tunnels in cross section. Horizontal tunnels at the bottom of the vertical shaft lead under the East Workers carry blasting equipment into a tunnel. River.

10 page ten the heart, such as a man might had dome-like terminations. lurid greenish-yellow mist . . . Newton proceeded to excavate four feel from some great sorrow. . . . Suddenly there came out . . . a rose up from the seething waters miles of intersecting tunnels in the Then came a grand and thrilling dark cloud of mingled stones and brooded over them. This riverbed beneath the surrounding reef. spectacle. The water rose up and earth, in front of which were was composed of the terrible The massive project was stalled by like a wall of many geysers, huge wooden fragments of the gasses from the explosive funding shortfalls and an economic separate, yet united, to a height coffer-dam. This cloud spread agents that had done their work depression that forced Newton to of from sixty to seventy feet. It over the columnar geysers, and and found their way into the suspend work for months and years was snow-white in color, and hid them, and even while this atmosphere. This gaseous fog at a time, but nally, on October 10, formed of huge cones, which last apparition was sinking a hung heavily over the place, but 1885, Miss Mary Newtontwelve seemed to spread itself like oil years oldagain pressed the ring over an increasing area, until it key, this time setting off two hundred was no more than a screen over and eighty thousand pounds of the rocking surface of the Hell explosives beneath the middle of the Gate stream, upon which the channel. black oating fragments of the The resulting detonation held poor coffer-dam were distinctly the record as the worlds largest visible. deliberately planned explosion until the Trinity atomic bomb test blast in Newtons report of the blast was 1945. An estimated twenty thousand less dramatic. He noted: spectators crowded the shores of Hell Gate to witness the event, and [The explosion] was seismographs forty miles away at distinguished by the absence West Point and Princeton University of hurtful shocks in the water recorded the tremor produced by the or underground. . . . The detonation. Following the blast, the explosive effort in the air Times reported: Ocean steamers will was not perceptible, [and] nd 26 feet of good, clear water over the underground shock was the once treacherous bottom, and triing. . . . A little plastering a new highway will be open for the Young Mary Newton presses a key to set off the charges. was dislodged from the ceiling commerce of the world. in a house 150 yards away and John Newton retired from the in two houses 600 yards away Army Corps of Engineers in 1886 from the work. to serve for two years as New York Citys Commissioner of Public In the aftermath of the detonation Works. He then worked as president of Halletts Point reef, the Times of the Panama Railroad Company reported, a reactionary feeling set until his death in 1895. in, and men said that they would Today, the only remaining not object to seeing a little blasting obstruction in the Hell Gate channel operation like that several times a is Mill Rock Island, originally two week and twice on Sundays. smaller rocks that were joined by rock Within a few weeks, steam-powered ll deposited from the Flood Rock dredging equipment removed enough demolition site. The island served rock from the shattered reef to create a as headquarters for further drilling much safer twenty-foot-deep channel and dredging projects carried out in around Halletts Point. After passing the East River by the Army Corps of through this new channel, however, Engineers between 1899 and 1915. ships captains still had to avoid a second, larger obstacle in the middle of Hell GateFlood Rock. Flood Rock, also known as Middle Reef, was three times larger than Halletts Point reef. Working from a vertical shaft drilled and blasted fty A photograph of the explosion at Halletts Point. feet down from the top of the rock, SOURCES: Hell Gate and Sandy Hook, The Manufacturer and Builder 4, no. 7 (July, 1872): 145-149. Klawonn, Marion J. Cradle of the Corps: A History of the New York District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1775-1975. Washington: U.S. Government Publication, 1977. Richardson, James. The Unbarring of Hell Gate, Scribners Monthly, (November, 1871): 33-54. Rust, Claude. Hellgates Infamous Past: Part I. Fight against endless obstructions., Military Engineer (September-October, 1971): 337-341. Rust, Claude. Hellgates Infamous Past: Part II. General Newton and Conquest, Military Engineer (November-December, 1971): 410- 414. INTERNET: The Conquest of Hell Gate. http:// www.nan.usace.army.mil/whoweare/ hellgate.pdf Google News Archive Search. (January, 2008) http://news.google. com/archivesearch?as_q=&num= 50&btnG=Search+Archives&as_ New Yorkers view the stupendous blast. epq=Hell+Gate

11 Weather Warning page eleven May Delay Invasion By David Vachon kept four more armored divisions in intercepted German communications and torrential rain descended on the In May of 1944, during the France under his personal command. showing that their plan was working. English Channel. Eisenhower was Second World War, General Dwight If all of these divisions engaged Hitler appeared to be convinced that worried that wind and waves would D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied with the invading troops on D-day, the main attack would come at Calais buffet the small landing craft, and that Commander, was preparing to launch the invasion would probably fail. It and that it would be preceded by a cloud cover would make it difcult a massive invasion of Nazi-occupied was vital, therefore, to prevent the diversionary attack, perhaps on the for Allied ghters, bombers, and Europe, using Britain as a base. Germans from learning where or beaches of Normandy. transport planes carrying paratroopers Eisenhower knew that the Germans when the landings would take place. Eisenhower was concerned that as to nd their targets. were expecting the invasion. Over Eisenhower set the date of the soon as news of the attack reached the On the evening of June 3, he the course of the previous three invasion for June 5, when the tides in German high command, they would met with his commanders at his years, they had been strengthening the English Channel would be at their immediately send vast numbers headquarters near Portsmouth, fty fortications all along the northern lowest. Low tides would allow his of troops to Normandy by rail. To miles south of London. His chief French, Belgian, and Dutch coasts, troops to see and avoid the mines and prevent this, he ordered British and weatherman, Royal Air Force (RAF) installing heavy artillery, barbed upright steel girders that Rommel had American bombers to concentrate Group Captain J. M. Stagg, had wire, land mines, and underwater placed on the long beaches. on destroying rail lines in France. just received a report from one of devices to repel Allied landing Allied Intelligence agents spread Members of the French Resistance his weather planes over the North craft. German Field Marshal Erwin misinformation to convince Hitler also took part in disabling the French Atlantic, and the report contained Rommel, Germanys best general, had that the Allies would land at Calais, rail system. bad news. The early hours of June 5 personally supervised strengthening eighteen miles across the English On June 3 the weather unexpectedly would be overcast and stormy with defenses along the beaches. Channel from Britain, when, in fact, turned foul: high winds, heavy clouds, high winds. Eisenhowers plan was to land one they planned to attack one hundred hundred and fty thousand Allied and fty miles south of Calais, along troops on French soil in a single day, the Normandy coast. The Allies had before the German high command could learn of the invasion. One hundred and twenty-seven thousand of these troopsAmerican, British, and Canadianwould be carried by seven thousand ships launched from British ports. The other twenty-three thousand troops would either drop by parachute or land in gliders inland from the coast, in order to secure both anks of the invading forces. Eisenhower was condent that the Allies had more and better planes than the Germans and could support the invading troops with air cover. He knew, however, that German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, head of German forces in Western Europe, had six armored divisions in France ready to respond to an invasion, and Field Marshal Gerd von that German Chancellor Adolf Hitler Rundstedt. Eisenhower in 1946. Allied landing craft at the British port of Southampton a few days before Field Marshal Erwin Rommel with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. the invasion.

12 page twelve At 4:30 the next morning, Stagg clear enough for the bombers and targets. He advised that going ahead reports of the invasion at Normandy, reported that conditions remained airborne operations to go ahead, without the assurance of clear skies he discounted them because he poor. Although Eisenhower was but he calculated that there would would be too risky. Eisenhowers was convinced that any attack on reluctant to postpone the invasion, he be a twenty-four hour window of deputy commander, British Air Normandy would be a diversionary decided that the risks of going ahead relatively clear weather and calm seas Marshal A. W. Tedder, agreed with tactic of little consequence and that were too great. He delayed the attack beginning the night of June 5 and Leigh-Mallory. Eisenhowers ground the real invasion would be at Calais, until June 6, hoping that the weather ending the night of June 6, when the commander, British General Bernard which was adequately defended. would improve by then. weather would turn bad again. Montgomery, had no reservations. He Hitler agreed with von Rundstedt and On the evening of June 4, the wind Eisenhower was hesitant to bet answered simply, I would say go. refused to release the four armored and rain continued. At 9:30 p.m. everything on the prediction of a After a few minutes of silent divisions under his direct authority Eisenhower called in his commanders short spell of good weather in the consideration, Eisenhower authorized because he believed he would need to hear the latest weather report. midst of a storm, but he knew that if the Allied naval commander, Admiral them at Calais. Captain Stagg entered the room with the break did materialize, it would be Bertram Ramsay, to launch his ships. Eisenhower also learned that his three senior meteorologists. Stagg an opportune time to attack because Eisenhower drove back to his trailer Rommel, at home in Germany with reported that conditions remained the Germans would probably not be and fell asleep. He awoke at 3:30 his wife, had immediately grasped poor, but that his weather aircraft expecting it. a.m. to the sound of pounding rain the seriousness of the situation. How in the North Atlantic had detected a When Stagg had nished his and erce winds that shook his trailer. stupid of me! he had exclaimed, as high-pressure front moving rapidly report and left the room, Eisenhower He could still call the invasion off, if he was informed by telephone of the southeast. On June 5 there would be asked his commanders for their the break in the weather predicted by invasion. a gradual clearing during the day, opinions. RAF Marshal Trafford Stagg did not materialize. He drove By the night of June 6, one hundred with decreasing winds. Conditions Leigh-Mallory, in charge of the back to the mess hall where Stagg had and fty-six thousand Allied soldiers would improve through the night. airborne assault, stressed the need a fresh report: the high-pressure front had come ashore on the Normandy Stagg could not say whether all for clear skies so that his bombers was moving in rapidly. Skies would beaches with losses of twenty- skies in the invasion area would be and paratroopers could reach their begin to clear within a few hours. ve hundred menmuch fewer Okay, lets go, said Eisenhower, than expected. With the beachhead now fully convinced that he had made secured, the Allies landed several the right decision. hundred thousand additional troops As predicted, the skies over the over the coming days. The invasion channel cleared in time for the was a success. invasion. Eisenhower woke up Eisenhower later received a early on the morning of June 6 to message from his chief weatherman, the reassuring news that most of RAF Captain James Stagg, stating the paratroopers had landed safely that June 19, the date Eisenhower had and had secured their immediate considered delaying to, turned out to objectives while sustaining only have the worst channel weather in minor losses. By 7:00 a.m. the rst twenty years. Eisenhower wrote back assault troops were wading through to Stagg: Thanks, and thank the gods waist-high water onto the beaches of of war we went when we did. Normandy, while the Allied destroyers The war in Europe continued for bombarded the German fortications. nearly eleven months. German forces It appeared that the Germans had nally submitted to an unconditional been caught off guard. surrender in early May of 1945. Eisenhower later learned that the break in the weather that had prompted his decision had come as a complete surprise to the German high command. German meteorologists had called for bad weather to continue uninterrupted for several days. This forecast had given the German high command a false sense of security. SOURCES: Convinced that the Allies would Ambrose, Stephen E. Eisenhower: not invade during the storm, von Soldier, General of the Army, Rundstedt had granted Field Marshal President-Elect 1890-1952. New American soldiers heading for Normandy with their weapons in clear Erwin Rommel permission to leave York: Simon & Schuster, 1983. plastic bags. France and return to Germany and Korda, Michael. Ike: An American celebrate his wifes birthday. When Hero. New York: Harper-Collins, von Rundstedt received the rst 2007. American troops and equipment streaming ashore at Omaha Beach on the U.S. troops wade ashore from a landing vehicle. Normandy Coast.

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